About the VSS Snapshot and Snapback wizards and the vxsnap utility
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About the VSS Snapshot and Snapback wizards and the vxsnap utility

If you need to create an individual snapshot set, you can do so either from the command line, using the vxsnap command line utility, or from the VEA console using the VSS Snapshot and Snapback wizards.

Unlike using the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard, which enables you to perform all aspects of snapshot configuration, you must prepare the mirror for the snapshot manually, using the Prepare command (or vxsnap utility). In addition, these methods do not include the capability of scheduling periodic refreshing of the snapshot set. Instead you would need to manually reattach the mirror, allowing it to resynchronize, and then create a snapshot set again from the resynchronized mirror.

Therefore, these methods are best suited for a one-time special-purpose snapshot. If you need to keep the snapshot set up to date, you should instead set up a snapshot schedule using the Quick Recovery Configuration Wizard or the VSS Snapshot Scheduler Wizard.

Note:

The vxsnap commands must be invoked on a local system. On Windows Server operating systems, all CLI commands must run in the command window in the "run as administrator" mode.

The following table lists the vxsnap commands that perform the same actions as the VSS wizards.

Table: Actions of VSS wizard and vxsnap command

Action

VSS wizard

vxsnap command

Creates a snapshot set consisting of snapshots of all the volumes in the specified SQL Server instance.

VSS Snapshot

create

Reattaches and resynchronizes a snapshot set to the production database volumes.

VSS Snapback

reattach

For more information about the VSS Snapshot and snapback wizards, see the following:

See About scheduling or creating an individual snapshot set.

For more information about the vxsnap command line utility, see the following:

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